Research library / Clinical trial

Antidepressant effects of ketamine in depressed patients

Berman RM, Cappiello A, Anand A, et al. Biological Psychiatry 2000;47(4):351-4

This tiny study was the first placebo-controlled, double-blind test of a single dose of a drug that blocks the brain's NMDA glutamate receptors in people with depression. Seven people with major depression each had two test days, receiving an intravenous infusion of ketamine on one and salt water on the other, in random order. Within 72 hours of ketamine, their depression scores dropped by an average of 14 points, while the saline infusion produced no average change. The authors concluded that drugs acting on NMDA receptors deserved study as antidepressants, which later research took up. With seven participants and only a few days of follow-up, the result is an early signal rather than evidence of lasting benefit.